Biocompatible, biodegradable polymers have diverse medical uses and often provide controlled or sustained drug delivery—whether from pharmaceutical compositions, as medical devices, or when used in conjunction with medical devices. Pharmaceutical compositions can be designed for many, if not all known medicinal delivery routes, including oral, intramuscular, subcutaneous, intraarticular, intranasal, topical, or other delivery route using biocompatible polymers. Such polymers are also used for controlled drug delivery in conjunction with medical devices and prostheses. For example, biocompatible polymers and drugs have been applied as coatings to implantable medical devices to provide controlled or sustained drug release. Applying a polymer coating provides one strategy to change the physicomechanical properties of the underlying device and can improve handling during surgical procedures. Additionally, medical devices, e.g., surgical meshes, bone prostheses and surgical closure devices, can be formed from or include a component with biocompatible polymers. Such devices can also have drugs incorporated at the time of manufacture and or later by post-manufacture coating or impregnation.
The profile of drug release depends on many factors, including polymer properties, drug properties, delivery route, delivery mode, other components that may be present or relevant such as individual metabolism, enzymatic action, degree of vascularization and more. Moreover, there are often manufacturing and compatibility challenges such as drug solubility or temperature sensitivity, that arise when selecting a polymer-drug system or formulation that provides a desired release profile yet remains biocompatible without untoward side effects in a subject. Given the diversity of polymers, drugs and medical applications, there is always a need for new polymers to provide polymer-drug combinations that can be manipulated to suit the medical condition or need. The present invention addresses the need for biocompatible, biodegradable and resorbable polymers that can be used to create medicines or to use with, in, on or as part of medical devices to provide the clinician with greater options for drug delivery, including for controlled, sustained or defined periods of drug release.
Finally, use of the polymers of the present invention provide a novel method to generate free carboxylic acid groups during in vivo use (rather than at the time of polymer synthesis and have certain synthetic advantages), and thus provide polymers with a greater range of chemical properties as well as the greater drug delivery capabilities.